My poetry has become the way of my giving out what music is within me.

The truth is... everything counts. Everything. Everything we do and everything we say. Everything helps or hurts; everything adds to or takes away from someone else.

There is no secret to success except hard work and getting something indefinable which we call 'the breaks.

I was reared in the conservative atmosphere of a Methodist parsonage.

If I am going to be a poet at all, I am going to be POET and not NEGRO POET.

What is Africa to me: Copper sun or scarlet sea, Jungle star or jungle track, Strong bronzed men, or regal black Women from whose loins I sprang When the birds of Eden sang?

We shall not always plant while others reap

The key to all strange things is in thy heart..../ My spirit has come home, that sailed the doubtful seas.

We were not made to eternally weep.

Dame Poverty gave me my name, And Pain godfathered me.

For we must be one thing or the other, an asset or a liability, the sinew in your wing to help you soar, or the chain to bind you to earth.

The most important skill for a new recruit from university will be the ability to learn.

Kindness solves more problems than diplomacy, wealth, intelligence, clout, force, law, and dominion combined.

In this age of consumerism film criticism all over the world - in America first but also in Europe - has become something that caters for the movie industry instead of being a counterbalance.

I loathe narcissism, but I approve of vanity.

My ancestors were fighters, something I have inherited.

We have to be careful about applying criminal labels to people until we're very sure.

Heaven is eternal and Earth everlasting. They can be eternal and everlasting because they do not exist for themselves, And for this reason can exist forever.

I finally decided if I was going to make a living, I was gonna have to come to New York.

I am a great realist in all aspects of life. Whatever I can do ... here it is.